Paranoid, Inc.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

MILACA, Minn. -- Sure, candidates for office want publicity.But Vampyre party candidate Jonathon Sharkey got the attention of a sharp-eyed sheriff's dispatcher.Sharkey is running as an independent in the Minnesota governor's race. He's a self-proclaimed satanist, and promises to impale terrorists and other criminals on the steps of the state Capitol.A sheriff's dispatcher saw some news coverage of Sharkey's campaign and recognized the name he used as a pro-wrestler, Rocky Flash.Police in Princeton, Minn., busted Sharkey on two Indiana warrants, one for escape, another for stalking.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

MANTECA, Calif. -- A California pastor accused of selling his town's oldest church has pleaded guilty to embezzlement and agreed to 18 months in prison.Randall Radic had preached at First Congregational Church of Ripon for nearly a decade before he sold the church last October for $525,000, allegedly using the money to buy a BMW. Authorities said he also faked documents that gave him possession of his house, which was owned by the church, then used the property to take out loans.The sales were voided because of fraudulent paperwork.The 53-year-old ex-pastor remains jailed as he awaits a formal sentencing and restitution hearing on March 16.

Monday, January 30, 2006

Notorious "Son of Sam" serial killer David Berkowitz is suing his former attorney.The man who terrorized New York in the 70s is accusing lawyer Hugo Harmatz of stealing his bar mitzvah photographs and other personal items.Berkowitz will testify via conference call from his prison cell in Upstate New York.He is serving 25 years to life for killing six people and wounding seven others.

Leafy SeadragonInside the tank at Underwaterworld Singapore December 2003. The largest of Seahorse allies, reaching up to 20 inches in size, these majestic masters of disguise are truly one of nature's wonders with their near perfect matched leafy, seaweed-like camouflage.

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Man Charged In Homicide May Have Used Tips From TV ShowUPDATED: 8:51 pm EST January 28, 2006

NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- When Tammy Klein began investigating crime scenes eight years ago, it was virtually unheard of for a killer to use bleach to clean up a bloody mess.Today, the use of bleach, which destroys DNA, is not unusual in a planned homicide, said the senior criminalist from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Klein and other experts attribute such sophistication to television crime dramas like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," which give criminals helpful tips on how to cover up evidence.Prosecutors have complained for years about "the CSI effect" on juries -- an expectation in every trial for the type of high-tech forensic evidence the show's investigators uncover. It also appears the popular show and its two spinoffs could be affecting how some crimes are committed.

"They're actually educating these potential killers even more," said Capt. Ray Peavy, also of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and head of the homicide division. "Sometimes I believe it may even encourage them when they see how simple it is to get away with on television."

A man charged in a recent double-homicide in northeast Ohio was a "CSI" fan and went to great lengths to cover his tracks, according to an affidavit filed by Trumbull County prosecutors.Jermaine "Maniac" McKinney, 25, allegedly broke into a house, killed a mother and daughter and used bleach to remove their blood from his hands, prosecutors said. He also covered the interior of a getaway car with blankets to avoid transferring blood.Prosecutors said McKinney burned the bodies, his clothing and removed his cigarette butts -- which would contain his DNA -- from the crime scene in Newtown Township, about 20 miles northwest of Youngstown.

He tried to throw some evidence into a lake, including a crowbar used to bludgeon one of the victims. The lake was frozen though and he shouted a profanity when the crowbar remained on the surface, according to the affidavit.Investigators later recovered the evidence. McKinney, who was indicted this month on two counts of aggravated murder, aggravated burglary and other charges, could face the death penalty if convicted.Cases where suspects burn and tamper with evidence seem to be increasing, said Chuck Morrow, chief of the criminal division in the Trumbull County Prosecutor's office.

"People are getting more sophisticated with making sure they're not leaving trace evidence at crime scenes," Morrow said.Klein said most crimes aren't well planned and that detailed attention to prevent leaving trace evidence typically occurs in cases where someone has killed a family member or business partner.

"For the most part, our killings involve gang bangers who for the most part are pretty stupid," she said.Sophisticated planning and concealment of evidence are aberrations, not the norm, said Larry Pozner, former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

"Most people who commit crimes are not very bright and don't take many precautions," Pozner said. "CSI and all the other crime shows will make no difference."Yet in the six years since CBS, which did not return phone calls seeking comment, introduced "CSI," there's been a trend of fewer clues like hair, cigarette butts and the killer's blood left behind at crime scenes, Peavy said.The more sophisticated the television story lines get, the better equipped criminals will be, Peavy said, adding that he never watches "CSI" because it's too unrealistic.

MEXICO CITY -- A female wrestler suspected of killing at least 10 elderly women in Mexico City said she acted out of anger, apparently because her mother abandoned her and she was sexually abused, according to police and a videotaped confession broadcast Friday. "I felt rage, anger, rancor," 48-year-old Juana Barraza told two interrogators who could be heard but not seen on the video, played on the Televisa television network. Barraza said she killed the women because "they looked at me."

NASA's top climate scientist said the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture in December calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases, The New York Times said overnight.In an interview with the newspaper, James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said that officials at the space agency's headquarters had ordered the public affairs staff to review his lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site and requests for interviews from journalists.

"They feel their job is to be this censor of information going out to the public," the Times quoted Hansen as saying, adding that the scientist planned to ignore the new restrictions.A NASA spokesman denied any effort to silence Hansen, The Times said. "That's not the way we operate here at NASA," said Dean Acosta, deputy assistant administrator for public affairs. "We promote openness and we speak with the facts."

Rather, the spokesman said the restrictions applied to any and all NASA personnel who could be seen by the public as speaking for the agency. Acosta added, however, that while government scientists were free to discuss scientific findings, policy statements should be left to policy makers and appointed spokesmen, the Times said.Hansen, a physicist who joined the space agency in 1967, is an authority on climate who directs efforts to simulate the global climate on computers at Manhattan's Goddard Institute.

Since 1988 he has warned publicly about the long-term threat from heat-trapping emissions, dominated by carbon dioxide, that are a byproduct of burning coal, oil and other fossil fuels, The Times said.It said he fell out of favour with the White House in 2004 after a University of Iowa speech ahead of the presidential election in which he complained that government climate scientists were being muzzled, adding that he planned to vote for Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry.Hansen told the Times over the course of several interviews that an effort began in early December to keep him from publicly discussing what he says are clear-cut dangers from further delay in curbing carbon dioxide.

Hansen said the recent efforts to quiet him began after a lecture he gave on Dec. 6 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco in which he said that significant emission cuts could be achieved with existing technologies, particularly in the case of motor vehicles.

Without leadership by the United States, he told The Times, climate change would eventually leave the earth "a different planet."Hansen said that NASA headquarters officials repeatedly phoned public affairs officers, who warned Hansen of "dire consequences" if such statements continued. The officers confirmed the warning to the Times.

The Bush administration's policy is to use voluntary measures to slow, but not reverse, the growth of emissions, the paper said.

New implant technology currently used to locate lost pets has been adapted for use in humans, allowing implant wearers to emit a homing beacon, have vital bodily functions monitored and confirm identity when making e-commerce transactions.

Applied Digital Solutions, an e-business to business solutions provider, acquired the patent rights to the miniature digital transceiver it has named "Digital Angel®." The company plans to market the device for a number of uses, including as a "tamper-proof means of identification for enhanced e-business security." Digital Angel® sends and receives data and can be continuously tracked by global positioning satellite technology.When implanted within a body, the device is powered electromechanically through the movement of muscles and can be activated either by the "wearer" or by a monitoring facility.

"We believe its potential for improving individual and e-business security and enhancing the quality of life for millions of people is virtually limitless," said ADS Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Sullivan. "Although we're in the early developmental phase, we expect to come forward with applications in many different areas, from medical monitoring to law enforcement. However, in keeping with our core strengths in the e-business to business arena, we plan to focus our initial development efforts on the growing field of e-commerce security and user ID verification."

Dr. Peter Zhou, chief scientist for development of the implant and president of DigitalAngel.net, Inc, a subsidiary of ADS, told WorldNetDaily the device will send a signal from the person wearing Digital Angel® to either his computer or the e-merchant with whom he is doing business in order to verify his identity. In the future, said Zhou, computers may be programmed not to operate without such user identification. As previously reported in WND, user verification devices requiring a live fingerprint scan are already being sold by computer manufacturers.

Digital Angel® takes such biometric technology a giant step further by physically joining human and machine. But e-commerce is only one field to which Digital Angel® applies. The device's patent describes it as a rescue beacon for kidnapped children and missing persons.

According to Zhou, the implant will save money by reducing resources used in rescue operations for athletes, including mountain climbers and skiers. Law enforcement may employ the implant to keep track of criminals under house arrest, as well as reduce emergency response time by immediately locating individuals in distress.The device also has the ability to monitor the user's heart rate, blood pressure and other vital functions. "Your doctor will know the problem before you do," said Zhou, noting peace of mind is possible for at-risk patients who can rest in the knowledge that help will be on the way should anything go wrong.

Indeed, peace of mind is Digital Angel®'s main selling point. "Ideally," the patent states, "the device will bring peace of mind and an increased quality of life for those who use it, and for their families, loved ones, and associates who depend on them critically." Referring to the threat of kidnapping, the patent goes on to say, "Adults who are at risk due to their economic or political status, as well as their children who may be at risk of being kidnapped, will reap new freedoms in their everyday lives by employing the device."

Digital Angel®'s developer told WND demand for the implant has been tremendous since ADS announced its acquisition of the patent in December. "We have received requests daily from around the world for the product," Zhou said, mentioning South America, Mexico and Spain as examples. One inquirer was the U.S. Department of Defense, through a contractor, according to Zhou. American soldiers may be required to wear the implant so their whereabouts and health conditions can be accessed at all times, said the scientist. As of yet, there is no central DigitalAngel.net facility that would do the job of monitoring users -- the task will most likely fall to the entities marketing the device, said Zhou.For example, if a medical group decides to market Digital Angel® to its patients, that group would set up its own monitoring station to check on its device-users. Likewise, militaries employing the implant will want to maintain their own monitoring stations for security purposes. But for critics, military use of the implant is not at the top of their list of objections to the new technology.

ADS has received complaints from Christians and others who believe the implant could be the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. The Book of Revelation states all people will be required to "receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark." (Rev. 13: 16-17)

In an increasingly cashless society where identity verification is essential for financial transactions, some Christians view Digital Angel®'s ID and e-commerce applications as a form of the biblical "mark of the beast." But Zhou dismisses such objections to the implant. "I am a Christian, but I don't think [that argument] makes sense," he told WND. "The purpose of the device is to save your life and improve the quality of life. There's no connection to the Bible. There are different interpretations of the Bible. My interpretation is, anything to improve the quality of life is from God. The Bible says, 'I am the God of living people.' We not only live, we live well." Sullivan, responding to religious objections to his product, told WorldNetDaily no one will be forced to wear Digital Angel®. "We live in a voluntary society," he said.

According to the CEO, individuals may choose not to take advantage of the technology. Zhou alluded to some Christians' objection to medicine per se, adding such opposition wanes when the life-saving, life-improving benefits of technology are realized. "A few years ago there may have been resistance, but not anymore," he continued. "People are getting used to having implants. New century, new trend." Zhou compared Digital Angel® to pacemakers, which regulate a user's heart rate. Pacemakers used to be seen as bizarre, said Zhou, but now they are part of everyday life. Digital Angel® will be received the same way, he added.

Vaccines are another good comparison, said the scientist, who noted, "Both save your life. When vaccines came out, people were against them. But now we don't even think about it." Digital Angel®, Zhou believes, could become as prevalent as a vaccine. "Fifty years from now this will be very, very popular. Fifty years ago the thought of a cell phone, where you could walk around talking on the phone, was unimaginable. Now they are everywhere," Zhou explained. Just like the cell phone, Digital Angel® "will be a connection from yourself to the electronic world. It will be your guardian, protector. It will bring good things to you." "We will be a hybrid of electronic intelligence and our own soul," Zhou concluded.

In the process of merging with Destron Fearing Corp., a manufacturer and marketer of electronic and visual identification devices for animals, DigitalAngel.net is scheduled to complete a prototype of the dime-sized implant by year's end.

Company executives hope to make the device affordable for individuals, though no cost projections have been made. ADS, DigitalAngel.net's parent company, received a special "Technology Pioneers" award from the World Economic Forum for its contributions to "worldwide economic development and social progress through technology advancements."

The World Economic Forum, incorporated in 1971 with headquarters in Geneva, is an independent, not-for-profit organization "committed to improving the state of the world." WEF is currently preparing for its "China Business Summit" in Beijing next month for the purpose of forging new economic alliances with the communist nation.

NEW YORK -- Patricia Battisti had thought her back surgery in early 2005 was routine. A letter from her hospital nearly a year later made it clear she was wrong. Battisti was informed that the cadaver bone that was implanted in her back may have been infected with various viruses -- the result of what investigators say was a large-scale scheme in which corpses were cut up and body parts illegally sold.

The Long Island woman now claims she contracted syphilis from the bone and plans to sue. The hospital adamantly denies the allegation. But the case may be an early warning that the gruesome body parts scandal is going to lead to a lot of lawsuits. I just want answers," said Battisti, 41, a single mother of four. "I had the operation to feel better, not get sick."

Battisti joins a burgeoning list of potential victims. Authorities believe two men paid off funeral homes so they could take bone and skin from the dead without their families' knowledge. Worse, some body parts came from elderly people and perhaps victims of infectious diseases, and the paperwork was doctored to say they had been younger and healthier, investigators say. The Brooklyn district attorney's office has opened a criminal case focusing on scores of funeral homes in the New York City area and hundreds of looted bodies, including that of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke. No arrests have been made. At the same time, the Food and Drug Administration is trying to trace the tissue, which was sold to medical facilities across the country and in Canada.

Both the FDA and hospital officials, while suggesting certain patients should get tested for viruses as a precaution, insisted the risk of becoming ill from tainted tissue is minuscule. But some of those patients are not comforted, said Battisti's attorney, Jeffrey S. Lisabeth. "It really freaks them out," he said. Also disturbed are families who recently learned of evidence that their dead relatives were secretly carved up before being buried or cremated. A lawsuit filed in Brooklyn accuses a now-defunct New Jersey tissue bank, Biomedical Tissue Services, of stealing parts from a 43-year-old woman who died of ovarian cancer in 2003.

The business allegedly forged a signature on a consent form, and listed the cause of death as head trauma. Authorities also found paperwork indicating Cooke's bones had been removed by the tissue bank before he was cremated. Cooke died of cancer last year at 95, but authorities say documents listed the cause of death as heart attack and lowered his age to 85. The operators of the tissue bank have denied any wrongdoing.

Battisti's ordeal began in December, when North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System warned her and 41 other patients that they were at risk for HIV, hepatitis B and C and syphilis. The letters explained that tissue products used for surgical repairs came from body parts that were removed without permission or medical safeguards. Doctors implanted bone in Battisti's back to relieve pain from a car accident injury. Her lawyer said a recent blood test indicated she had been exposed to syphilis; she is awaiting the results of further tests.

The hospital's attorney, Anthony Sola, argued the tissue banks were responsible for screening and sterilizing their products, which arrive at hospitals ready for use in sealed containers. He also claimed anyone getting syphilis from a bone graft would be "a medical first."

Unfounded allegations, he warned, could "create undue fear in patients who need treatment." Both Lisabeth and the attorney who filed the lawsuit in Brooklyn said they have been contacted by other lawyers and possible victims nationwide. "The number of potential plaintiffs is virtually limitless," Lisabeth said.

"The eminent domain abuse continues, this time in Houston. Glenn Seureau had his property taken from him via having it "condemned" so that the Houston port could build the Houston Cruise Terminal. He initially was given $1.9 million for the property which he didn't accept as a fair value and felt was low. The property has been in his family for 150 years. Having failed to steal the property in this way for way under it's value, it was taken to court at which time Harris County Civil Court Judge Lynn Bradshaw-Hull decided that since the man wasn't cooperating with the port he should only be given $1 for the 105 acre property. In addition he should be forced to repay the initial $1.9 million at 5.75 percent interest and court costs."- Rhymes With Right

The conflict began in September 2002, when a special commission held a hearing regarding the Port's request to condemn Seureau's land. Seureau did not attend the hearing, and the commission ordered the Port to pay him approximately $1.9 million for the property. The Port deposited the funds into the registry of the court, taking constructive possession of the land, but Seureau refused to take the money or relinquish the title to the property. "I didn't think (the Port) had the right to take the property," he said, adding that the Port's need for the land seems to be based on private rather than public interests....He was later advised by an attorney that he did not have the right to contest eminent domain and withdrew the $1.9 million to pay for further appeals regarding the market value of his land. ...Seureau, who lives in his 180-year-old family home next door to the recently condemned property, said that although he is not familiar with the judge's intentions, he sees Bradshaw-Hull's ruling as a "punishment" for trying to challenge the Port. "I was forced to settle for less than market value," he said.

There was outrage Wednesday when a Vermont judge handed out a 60-day jail sentence to a man who raped a little girl many, many times over a four-year span starting when she was seven. The judge said he no longer believes in punishment and is more concerned about rehabilitation. Prosecutors argued that confessed child-rapist Mark Hulett, 34, of Williston deserved at least eight years behind bars for repeatedly raping a littler girl countless times starting when she was seven...."The one message I want to get through is that anger doesn't solve anything. It just corrodes your soul," said Judge Edward Cashman speaking to a packed Burlington courtroom. Most of the on-lookers were related to a young girl who was repeatedly raped by Mark Hulett who was in court to be sentenced....But Judge Cashman explained that he is more concerned that Hulett receive sex offender treatment as rehabilitation. But under Department of Corrections classification, Hulett is considered a low-risk for re-offense so he does not qualify for in-prison treatment. So the judge sentenced him to just 60 days in prison and then Hulett must complete sex treatment when he gets out or face a possible life sentence. Judge Cashman also also revealed that he once handed down stiff sentences when he first got on the bench 25 years ago, but he no longer believes in punishment."I discovered it accomplishes nothing of value; it doesn't make anything better; it costs us a lot of money; we create a lot of expectation, and we feed on anger," Cashman explained to the people in the court. The sentence outraged the victim's family who asked not to be identified. "I don't like it," the victim's mother, in tears, told Channel 3.

"He should pay for what he did to my baby and stop it here. She's not even home with me and he can be home for all this time, and do what he did in my house," she added. Hulett -- who had been out on bail-- was taken away to start his sentence immediately.

Mr. Rayfran das Neves Sales was convicted in Belem, Brazil, in December of the widely reported murder of an American rain forest-activist nun, who was gunned down as she argued with Sales over who owned the land he was working.

Sales claimed self-defense, in that, according to him, the nun reached into her bag as she was proclaiming that "the weapon I have (for fighting for preservation of the rain forest) is this," and Sales, sensing that she was about to pull a gun, shot her.

The nun's "weapon," was, of course, her copy of what countless preachers refer to as a primary "weapon" against sin: the Bible.

In December, according to police in Jersey City, N.J., Roselean Walker, 36, sat at one screen in a movie cineplex with her boyfriend while her 11-year-old son watched the longer Harry Potter film at another screen, but after her movie ended, she tired of waiting for the son and went home with the boyfriend to New York City. When police called her the next morning to come pick up the boy, she demanded that they drive him home. After officers ordered her immediately to the station, she showed up in a bad mood, threatening a lawsuit for the inconvenience, and wound up being charged with assaulting an officer

(in addition to endangering a child's welfare).

[Jersey Journal, 12-9-05]

According to the Nov. 10 Evening News of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., a father was under investigation by police after War Memorial Hospital reported an assault on the man's 11-year-old son. Police said it appeared that the two were playing a video game, that the son had beaten his dad by using a secret upgrade that made his character more powerful, and that the dad, in anger, had spanked the kid, put soap in his mouth and slapped him several times in the head.

Two men, aged 50 and 36, who had taken a taxicab home so they wouldn't be driving drunk, were killed when the cab was hit by a 21-year-old drunken driver (Albuquerque, November).

A 21-year-old Mormon man, riding in a truck at about 35 mph with his brothers, who were offending him by cussing, demanded that they stop or he would jump out; one of the brothers, perhaps jokingly, said, Go ahead, and the man did and was killed when his head hit the pavement

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - A Brazilian man arguing with his 88-year-old mother threw her into a neighbors' yard where two pit bulls mauled her to death, police said on Friday.

Painter Luiz Polidoro, 48, picked up his mother Maria and pitched her over the yard wall during an argument on Thursday afternoon at her house. Two pit bulls tied up in the neighboring yard then savaged her and she died later in hospital, a police spokesman said.

"He is an alcoholic. He was robbing his mother's pension money so he could drink," the dogs' owner, Helder Bento Rodrigues, told O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper. Polidoro told police his mother had jumped over the wall on her own. The newspaper said he had tried to rescue her. When police arrived, he was cradling the blood-soaked woman. Polidoro has been jailed in Sao Paulo and charged with murder.

BEIJING (Reuters) - The children of a Chinese butcher executed for murdering a waitress have appealed against his conviction after the "victim" turned up alive, the second such judicial blunder to be made public in recent weeks. Shi Xiaorong was 18 when she disappeared in 1987 at the same time as six pieces of a woman's body, sliced off "in a professional manner," were found in a river in southern Hunan province, a newspaper said Thursday.

Police arrested Teng Xingshan because he was a butcher by trade and because of rumors he used to go to the hotel where Shi worked to find prostitutes, the Beijing News said.Hunan Provincial Court sentenced Teng to death for murder despite an appeal and a signature campaign by hundreds of local villagers and officials. He was executed by gunshot in 1989.

"He cried out he was innocent until he was at the execution ground," the newspaper quoted one of Teng's lawyers as saying.Waitress Shi was later found to be serving a prison sentence with her husband for selling drugs, the newspaper said.Wrongful convictions are not uncommon in China where a campaign has been launched to clean up the interrogation and trial process.

In April, She Xianglin was freed after serving 11 years of a 15-year jail sentence in central Hubei province for murdering his wife when she turned up not only alive but with another man.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A man arrested after a traffic stop fell asleep before an officer arrived to administer a field sobriety test. But authorities say James Lovato, 50, had been through it before — it was his 18th arrest on a charge of drunken driving.The DWI Resource Center, which tracks drunken driving convictions back to 1984, said Lovato has been convicted at least eight times. State records show his first arrest was in 1977. In addition, a criminal complaint against him in the latest arrest said his license has been revoked seven times. He was charged in Saturday's incident with aggravated driving while intoxicated on a fourth or subsequent offense.

A breath test found his breath-alcohol level was 0.16 percent, twice the state's presumed level of intoxication.Lovato was driving on a revoked license when police said they clocked him at 77 mph in a 65 mph zone on Interstate 25 north of Albuquerque. A complaint filed in metropolitan court said police had to force Lovato's car to the side of the road to get him to stop. Police then noticed an open beer bottle near the driver's seat, and said Lovato's eyes were bloodshot and his breath smelled of alcohol. The complaint said three open containers of beer were found in the car.

Police also said Lovato fell asleep by the time a DWI officer arrived to administer the sobriety test.Lovato pleaded guilty last year to a charge of fourth or subsequent offense DWI and was sentenced last October to 12 months in a community custody program followed by probation.

Okay so what I want to know is... how is it that this guy EVER got his license back time and time again?

1995 --In Kansas City, Mo., in June, Keith Smith, 26, was convicted of strangling and stabbing to death a minister, in whose house he lived, and his housekeeper. In a videotaped statement to the police at the time of the murders, Smith said the mayhem was caused by "Chucky," the murderous doll in the movie "Child's Play."

1996 --Earlier this year, Michael J. Lewis Sr., serving time in Missouri for a gas station robbery, called the county attorney's office just out of curiosity, to find out why he had never been prosecuted for a 1993 bank robbery with which he had been charged. The prosecutor discovered that the file had been misplaced and that only a few months remained to bring Lewis to trial before the statute of limitations would run out. In June, Lewis, already serving 10 years, plea-bargained to another 10.

1996 --Mike Marcum, the Missouri guy who made News of the Weird in 1995 after he stole six power company transformers he said were necessary to make his time machine (so he could find out the winning lottery number and come back and buy a ticket), called a radio show from Nevada in October 1996 and said he was only 30 days away from finishing his invention. His Missouri landlord had evicted him for various electrical misadventures in his apartment.

1996 --A 63-year-old man died in May in West Plains, Mo.; he had set himself on fire in a suicide attempt, but the pain was so great that he ran into a pond to douse the flames and drowned.

1994 --In September, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Washington, D.C., announced that it had issued 60 citations and $90,000 in fines for unsafe workplace conditions at the Federal Building in Kansas City, Mo., which is the regional OSHA office.

1996 --In September, according to police in Junction City, Kan., David Bell, 30, just released from jail for car theft, walked out the door and stole another car to get home. And in October, William B. Singleton, 24, just released from jail in Belton, Mo., on a larceny charge, allegedly broke into a vending machine in the lobby of the police station and stole a 60-cent Strawberry Twisteroo while he waited for his ride to arrive.

1995 --In March, in Rich Hill, Mo., Mr. Edgar Allen Poe, age 75; in April, in Charlestown, R.I., Mrs. Eleanor Rigby, age 80; in May, of a fall just after he reached the summit of Mount McKinley, Mr. Brian McKinley, age 37; and in Anchorage, Alaska, in September, Mr. Phillip Morris, of lung cancer at age 45.

(1/10/06 - CINCINNATI, OH)The mummified body of a woman who didn't want to be buried was found in a chair in front of her television set 2 1/2 years after her death, authorities said.

Johannas Pope had told her live-in caregiver that she didn't want to be buried and planned on returning after she died, Hamilton County Coroner O'Dell Owens said Monday.

Pope died in August 2003 at age 61. Her body was found last week in the upstairs of her home on a quiet street. Some family members continued to live downstairs, authorities said. No one answered the doorbell at Pope's home Monday afternoon.

LANSING, Mich. -- A man has been jailed on assault charges after a prosecutor, police officer and courtroom bailiff became seriously ill after shaking hands with him. During a Dec. 21 court appearance on a traffic charge, John Ridgeway pulled out a vial of an unknown liquid, rubbed his hands with the contents and insisted on shaking hands with the three people, authorities said. All of them got sick within an hour, suffering from nausea, headaches, numbness and tingling that lasted about a day. Two sought treatment at a hospital.

The FBI was running tests on the substance to identify it. Ridgeway, 41, told officials the vial contained olive oil, according to prosecutor Keith Kushion. He was not the prosecutor who fell ill. "I have never seen the likes of this," Kushion said. "Nobody else has, either." Neither Ridgeway nor his attorney immediately returned calls for comment. Ridgeway could get up to six years in prison if convicted.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Jan 13, 8:29 PM (ET)WACO, Texas (AP) - A lawyer faces a felony charge of kidnapping for allegedly abducting a client from his wedding celebration in an attempt to collect legal fees. Police say Paula Allen, 51, took Rolando Castelan from his Dec. 10 wedding and then drove him around in handcuffs as Castelan called friends and family from a cell phone to scrounge up the money he owed his lawyer, the Waco Tribune-Herald reported for its Friday edition.

A Croatian widow has submitted a pickled cucumber for a place as the world's oldest in the Guinness Book of Records. Vera Dudas, 73, from Duga Resa, says the cucumber was pickled by her mother-in-law when her late husband was born in 1930. She has now had the cucumber insured. She says it's her only reminder of her husband Pavao who would have turned 76 this year.

The mayor of Brazil's biggest city has announced plans to build running tracks in cemeteries. Sao Paulo's Mayor Jose Serra wants to build circular tracks in 22 of the city's cemeteries, reports SP TV. He hopes the running tracks, which would surround burial areas, will enable residents to exercise regularly.

OSLO (Reuters) - The Church of Norway forced a priest to resign on Friday from a panel set to judge bikini-clad women competing to be the country's Miss Universe contestant. Einar Gelius, an Oslo Lutheran vicar, has said it was his right to do as he wished during his spare time, but church members said that as a clergyman he always represented the Church and should not be seen to be judging other humans.Read the story at: This_Link

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Brown University's library boasts an anatomy book that combines form and function in macabre fashion. Its cover — tanned and polished to a smooth golden brown, like fine leather — is made of human skin.Read the story at: This Link

Minnesota voters, who eight years ago elected a former professional wrestler as their governor, may find a self-proclaimed vampire on the ballot for the office this year. “Politics is a cut-throat business,” said Jonathon “The Impaler” Sharkey, who said he plans to announce his bid for governor on Friday on the ticket of the Vampyres, Witches and Pagans Party.Read this story at: This Link

A Better Web Experience!Firefox 1.5 has an intuitive interface and blocks viruses, spyware, and popup ads. It delivers Web pages faster than ever. And it’s easy to install and import your favorites. Packed with useful features like tabbed browsing, Live Bookmarks, and an integrated Search bar, Firefox will change the way you experience the Web, for the better.

Are you one who gets frustrated with your computer because you can't always do what you want to do? It's not the computer Jack..... it's you!

Tip #1 Supose you see something on a website and just have to have it but for some reason, you highlight and right click but this nasty little pop-up message says, "action disabled" All you have to do is highlight what you want..... then hold down the ctrl key and hit C. Nothing happens? Oh yes it did... whatever was highlighted is copied to your clipboard. Now open the appropriate program (i.e. Word, or whatever) and choose paste. Either by right clicking or hold down the ctrl key again and hit V.

Tip #2 You're cruising the net. You want to go "back" to the previous page. You can click on back or you can just hit the backspace button.

Tip #3 An easier way to skip back and forth between programs is to: Hold down the alt key and hit tab. What this will do is open a little pop-up window that shows icons for all the programs you have running (most of which will most likely be minumized). Continue to hold down that alt key and hit the tab button until the program you want open, is highlighted and then let off the buttons. Whaaaaaa laaaaaaaa!

Tip #4 Need to look at that hard drive to find some file? Most of you probably didn't think to create a short-cut to your hard drive onto your desktop or the quick launch bar, right? Didn't think so. Well you don't need it. Right mouse click on your start button and choose "explore". There's your hard drive! More tips later or else just email me some questions. I kinda like helping.

This is a sweet little program that has proven most useful to me! It includes several widgets among other things you'll love.Games, mail, Calendar, Contact list... etc. It truly helps make your desktop jazzy.PLUS...... no spyware and it's FREE! Goowy

So what do you think? Will you be one who invests in the new Windows Vista OS when it hits the shelves?

I haven't quite decided yet and of course even if I go that route, I certainly won't be one of the first in line. Microsoft does have a reputation for distributing software before even most of the bugs are out of it but... Having said that, the previews of it look fairly good.

I'm working on trying to get a pre-released beta version of it just to try it before I buy it kind of thing. I saw earlier versions of Longhorn and wasn't real impressed but if Microsoft includes theability to run my cable tv on this new Vista like they let folks with the Windows XP Media Center Edition... I will be most interested.

Out of 1496 victims, only 336 bodies were recovered from the water. Only 11 of those recovered were f emale. Why is that?One might figure right up front that it is because the boats were filled with women and children first but that's not what I've found out.

65 children died 61 children were saved More men survived than women. (Of course there were a lot more men on board than women.)More than twice as many second class men survived as first class children.

Is it just the odds that more men were aboard Titanic and per ratio, more men went in the water that this fact is true? Or does it have anything to do with the differences in male/female body, mass, or what happens to the differing sexes in the water? I don't know, but I'm really curious.

Monday, January 02, 2006Today is the day! Congrats Elizabeth, wherever you are. Today in history is the day you were taken down for some 610 killings. What a loser! Live by the sword and die by the sword... eventually.

Why oh why do so many have issue with serial killers? Personally, I say "here, here". We as humans are populating way out-of-control so I have no problem with these serial killers at all. I just wish they'd be more selective.

Hey killers... why not start with the sex offenders? Don't pick on the little kids and women out minding their own business. PLEASE.